Machete-wielding drugstore robber sentenced to 5 years in prison

The 2-foot-long machete that a man wielded as he tried to steal drugs this morning from the Main Street Rite Aid, according to police. At about 10:26 a.m., Joshua Powell, 23, of Rockland walked into the Rite Aid with a machete, jumped over the pharmacy counter, showed the pharmacist the machete and demanded drugs, according to Deputy Chief of Police Wally Tower.

Joshua Powell, 23, of Rockland pleaded guilty to robbery, stealing drugs and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon. For his crimes, Justice Joyce A. Wheeler sentenced Powell to 14 years in prison with all but five years suspended. He will have to serve four years probation upon release.

All the charges stem from a Sept. 30 event during which Powell went into Rite Aid in Rockland armed with a machete and threatened pharmacy staff until they gave him drugs, which he then consumed inside the store before police surrounded him.

Powell also was sentenced on several other crimes he committed.

He received a two-year sentence for a May 26 incident in which he stole tools from an Owls Head man. He pleaded guilty to burglary and theft in that case. He also pleaded guilty to giving police false information on Sept. 27, 2010, for which the justice gave him six months in prison. Because the justice ordered that Powell serve all the sentences together, he should be in prison for five years total.